DPC latency for storport.sys

[kevm14]

Oh yes. DPC = deferred procedure call.

Anyway, roughly since the last W10 build, I have noticed sound stuttering at a fairly periodic basis. I did some digging and downloaded a tool called Latency Monitor which is designed to run on systems to make sure they are ready to be as real-time as possible for things like critical audio applications where this kind of glitch can cause a buffer underrun and a skip (it even effects my mouse cursor which is REALLY annoying).

Anyway, the utility told me that storport.sys is the offender. That is basically related to the storage controller. There are no firmware updates for my Intel 520 SSD so that isn't it. I have been in RAID mode for forever, because that is the only way to get AHCI from what I recall on my Dell BIOS. None of that has changed anyway.

I haven't figured out what to do though I am hoping another update fixes it.

For what it's worth, many other drivers can cause this issue, such as ndis.sys (network related) or audio drivers. Mine is apparently the storage driver. Kind of annoyed I have to deal with this in 2018 but on the other hand, how well does a Mac from 2009 run on the current OS (if it is even supported)? To put 2009 in proper perspective, Apple was only ~3 years into their big Intel switch. That was a long time ago.

To be continued.

[kevm14]

Side note....on older hardware (which is all of my hardware), I would have had the best experience if I just stayed on Win 8.1. Same goes for my even-older Sony VAIO laptop (~2006, I know). I like some of the features and functions in Win 10 so I don't really want to just go to Linux or something.

[kevm14]

I think this broke with 1803. I am on 1809 now and it is still doing it.

Downloaded HDParm utility and disabled power saving to all drives since that was a lead I got from here:
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Fo ... o-i-fix-it

Didn't fix. I think it will take something like a BIOS/RAID controller firmware update to fix this. Which ain't happening. This PC is almost 10 years old. The performance is sufficient actually, it just glitches every ~4-5 seconds. Which is really annoying. It freezes the mouse briefly but it is much more noticeable on audio playback.

Maybe there is an older or different driver I can revert to. It might go away if I go back to IDE/ATA mode but that seems like a bad idea.

[kevm14]

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
REPORTED DPCs
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
DPC routines are part of the interrupt servicing dispatch mechanism and disable the possibility for a process to utilize the CPU while it is interrupted until the DPC has finished execution.

Highest DPC routine execution time (µs): 100895.099248
Driver with highest DPC routine execution time: storport.sys - Microsoft Storage Port Driver, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total DPC routine time (%): 0.384746
Driver with highest DPC total execution time: storport.sys - Microsoft Storage Port Driver, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in DPCs (%) 0.580508

DPC count (execution time <250 µs): 2228064
DPC count (execution time 250-500 µs): 0
DPC count (execution time 500-999 µs): 24
DPC count (execution time 1000-1999 µs): 0
DPC count (execution time 2000-3999 µs): 0
DPC count (execution time >=4000 µs): 0

So the audio glitch amounts to 0.1 seconds plus the time it takes to refill the audio buffer, I guess. It's short but unmistakable (and is every ~4 seconds).

[kevm14]

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/window ... rt-drivers

Storage Port Drivers
04/19/2017
2 minutes to read
Contributors

Microsoft Windows contains three system-supplied storage port drivers:
SCSI Port Driver (Scsiport.sys)
Storport Driver (Storport.sys), available in Windows Server 2003 and later versions of the operating system
ATA Port Driver (Ataport.sys), available in Windows Vista and later versions of the operating system

The Storport driver is a more efficient, higher performance driver than SCSI Port. Therefore you should develop miniport drivers that work with the Storport driver whenever possible. It is particularly important to use Storport with high performance devices, such as host-based RAID and fibre channel adapters. Storport cannot be used with adapters or devices that do not support Plug and Play (PnP) or that must use system DMA. For a detailed list of restrictions on the use of the Storport driver, see Requirements for Using Storport with an Adapter.

The ATA port driver shields an ATA miniport driver from the SCSI-based protocol that the port driver uses to communicate with higher-level drivers, such as storage class drivers. For instance, miniport drivers that are attached to either SCSI port or Storport must provide SCSI sense data to the port driver. This is not necessary for an ATA miniport driver. The ATA port driver collects the necessary data from the ATA miniport driver by using ATA commands, organizes the data so that it conforms to a SCSI sense data format, and passes the data on to higher-level drivers as though it were SCSI sense data. The ATA port driver also converts each SCSI_REQUEST_BLOCK that it receives from higher-level drivers into an ATA-based equivalent called an IDE_REQUEST_BLOCK.

Each port driver communicates with a set of vendor-supplied storage miniport drivers and supplies a set of support routines for the miniport drivers to call. Support routines supplied by the SCSI Port driver are described in SCSI Port Library Routines. Support routines supplied by the Storport driver are described in Storport Driver Support Routines. Support routines supplied by the ATA port driver are described in ATA Port Library Routines.

Each port driver communicates with its miniport drivers by calling a standard set of routines that every storage miniport driver must implement. The miniport driver routines called by the SCSI port driver, the Storport driver, and the ATA port driver are very similar to one another. Descriptions of these routines can be found in SCSI Miniport Driver Routines, Storport Driver Miniport Routines, and ATA Miniport Driver Routines, respectively.

If you want your storage device to be supported on client Windows products, or on server products earlier than Windows Server 2003, you must supply a SCSI Port miniport driver.

If you want your storage device to be supported on Windows Server 2003 and later versions of the server product family, you can provide either a SCSI Port miniport driver or a Storport miniport driver. If you wish to install an ATA storage device in Windows Vista and later versions of the operating system, you must provide an ATA port miniport driver.

The sections that follow describe the SCSI Port, Storport, and ATA port drivers and how they differ.

[kevm14]

Inching closer to a resolution maybe!

Hi Fernando,

My Dell desktop with Southbridge ICH10R was having difficulty with driver 15.44.0.1010 under 1803 & 1809. However, it runs perfectly on 1709 & driver 13.44.0.1026.

Just now on 1809 I installed your mod-signed driver 13.2.8.1002 - & the latency issues are gone!

thank you very much )

Could you possibly send me a "mod+signed 64bit Intel RST driver v13.44.0.1026" as you did for aaa839?

My Info:
Dell Inc., Model 0R849J A01, Chipset Intel X58 Rev. 12
Southbridge Intel 82801JR (ICH10R) Rev. 00

SATA Mode RAID (in order to enable AHCI), Intel SATA RAID Controllers Device ID DEV_2822, 240GB Crucial SSD, 1TB Barracuda

https://www.win-raid.com/t11f23-Modded- ... ed-68.html

Apparently Intel sucks at drivers/driver management. So people have to make a special modded driver that will install. I will look into this. This sounds like exactly my issue. He reported issues with 1803 and 1809 as I did. And has the exact same Intel ICH10R RAID controller thingy. Shit, he even has an SSD and platter HDD (which probably doesn't matter). Oh, and it's even a Dell (also doesn't matter probably).

[kevm14]

OH MY GOD.

I fixed it.

Rough steps in English:
- Run older version of Intel ICH10R RAID driver
- Because of some dumb stuff, Intel gives you zero ways to do this, really.
- Some guy hacked older Intel drivers (the win-raid.com site) by stripping them out of older RST utilities
- He created a certificate so Windows would actually install them
- Install certificate to system
- Install his customized/hacked older driver, per the copied text above
- Windows was happy with this and restarted and now I am running this

And no audio skips. Or mouse freezes. Here is the after shot of the Latency Monitor utility, which now reports good stuff.

Certificate install info, which was critical. I skipped this and Windows refused the install the driver.
https://www.win-raid.com/t1300f25-Tips- ... l#msg15574

The performance of this 10 year old PC is actually quite satisfactory. This was a really good buy since it was basically a cheap OEM desktop (like under $700 as a refurb) that gave me a very expensive, brand new Intel i7-920 (would have cost ~$1000 to build this then, before the following upgrades). Mods:
- New P/S (OEM one smoked many years ago)
- SSD for boot and apps
- OEM HDD died and replaced with a 4TB storage drive
- Added RAM (12GB)
- Adam donated an NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT video card

[Adam]

- Adam donated an NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT video card

Did you ever install it? Also, I have an i7-930 that I'm not using either.

[kevm14]

Yes.

[Adam]

Now that I re-read this, I think I had the same problem with my C2Q machine. It used a P-45 Gigabyte motherboard with the same ICH10R Southbridge that had a similar problem for a while. I still have that machine...not that a C2Q machine would be that useful for anything now a days.